Conference Report

Report on the 51st Spring Meeting (2004) ofThe Japan Society of Applied Physics andRelated Societies
Kiyoshi YATSUI*The 51st Spring Meeting (2004) of The
Japan Society of Applied Physics and Related Societies was held over four days, fromMarch 28 (Sun.) to March 31 (Wed.), 2004,
at the Tokyo University of Technology (Hachioji, Tokyo). This Meeting was held at theTokyo University of Technology in the springof 1998, making this the second Meeting atthe University and the first in six years. The
weather over the four days of the Meeting
was for the most part clear and pleasant, andthe Meeting was a great success, thanks tothe valuable contributions made through theefforts of President Hideo Aiso and other advisors; Prof. Isao Kurabe, Chairman of the Local Steering Committee; Prof. Yoh Mita, Prof.
Hajime Yamamoto, and Deputy Secretary
Kazuo Miyakoshi, all Vice-Chairman of theSteering Committee; and all of the membersof the local Steering Committee. We would
like to express our deep appreciation to all
those involved for their valued assistance.

1 Meeting Statistics
At this Meeting, there were a total of4,801 presentations of research results, including 4,275 regular lectures and 526 symposiums and other topical sessions (calculated in 15-minute segments, representing thesame time allocated to regular lectures), withcountless lively debates. Incidentally, at theMeeting held last spring at the Yokohama
Campus of Kanagawa University, there were
4,072 regular lectures and 591 symposiums
and other topical sessions, for a total of 4,663
presentations, so the total number of presentations increased by 138, making this thelargest Meeting in the history of the Society.
At meetings of the Japan Society of Applied Physics, the number of lectures hasfor the most part fluctuated along with thetrends in the Japanese semiconductor industry, from the period of prosperity in the1980s to the slump of the 1990s. Looking
at the trends in the number of lectures overthe past three years or so, however, it would
appear that the tone of recovery has become
firmly established. Perhaps as a reflectionof this trend, the number of registered participants also reached 9,459, a significant increase compared to the 9,117 participants at
Kanagawa University last spring, surpassing
the past record of 9,443 participants in 1991
(Tokai University, Konan Campus), setting anew record for the number of participants aswell (refer to Fig. 1, which shows the numberof lectures and the number of participants forMeetings from 1986).
At this meeting, the number of papers
submitted increased in all 15 of the MainClassifications. Looking at these Main Classifications individually, there was a particularly
large increase in papers on topics such as Applied Materials, Organic Molecular Electronics
and Bioelectronics, Measurement and Control, Quantum Electronics, and Optoelectronics (see Table 1).

No. of lectures at spring meetings

No. of lectures at autumn meetings

No. of participants at spring meetings

No. of participants at autumn meetings

10000
8000
6000
4000
2000

Fig. 1: Number of lectures and participantsfor Meetings from 1986

1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
20040

* Extreme Energy-Density Research Institute, Nagaoka University of Technology

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In addition to the regular lectures, there
were symposiums (30 themes), joint sessions (6 themes), and general lectures withinclassifications (2 themes). There were also
a number of special lectures commemorating awards received, including the FourthAchievement Awards (3 awards), the FifthOptics and Quantum Electronics Achievement
Award (1 award), the First Optics and Electronic Integration Technology Achievement
Award (the Hayashi Award; 1 award), andthe Optics Paper Award. Two “Society of Ap-

plied Physics Schools” were also held (plannedby the Plasma Electronics Category Subcommittee): School A was based on the theme of“This is how inventions and discoveries cameto be – Advice to Graduate Students andYoung Researchers,” and School B on thetheme of “Plasma Sciences that support cutting-edge technologies – from Nanotechnology to Biotechnology.” Both of these schools
were very popular, with 269 participants attending School A and 147 participants attending School B.

The “15th Scientist Awards for the Presentation of an Excellent Paper” were also presented. A total of 36 recipients were selected
through a careful screening from among 518
of the 3,590 regular lectures presented atthe 2003 Autumn Academic Conference forwhich applications had been received in advance. Chairman Hiroyuki Sakaki presented
the award certificates along with a commemorative gift, praising the accomplishments ofthese young researchers, and offering wordsof encouragement for the future.

Table 1 (a): Top 5 Main Classifications based on Rates of Average Increase for over the Past 10 Years

MainClassification No.

Average Increase over
Past 10 years

Name of Main Classification

8Applied Material Physics (215 lectures)17.3 %

10Molecular Electronics and Bioelectronics (526 lectures)

8.0 %2Measurement and Control (63 lectures)

7.9 %4Quantum Electronics (344 lectures)

6.5 %5Optoelectronics (233 lectures)

6.5 %Figure in parentheses is the no. of lectures for spring 2004.

Table 1 (b): Top 10 Secondary Classifications based on Rates of Average Increase for over the Past 3 Years

SecondaryClassification No.

Average Increase over
Past 3 years

Name of Secondary Classification

10.8

Special Field A: Organic Devices (132 lectures)

42.7 %

10.9

Special Field B: Molecular and Bio Nanotechnology (62 lectures)

41.3 %

10.7

Biological, Medical Engineering and Biochips (55 lectures)

33.9 %

4.2

Photonic Nano-Structures and Relating Phenomena (90 lectures)

32.0 %

7.3

Lithography (78 lectures)

28.0 %

4.4

Ultrafast Lasers and High Field Lasers (58 lectures)

27.9 %

6.3

Oxide Electronics (77 lectures)

27.0 %

3.4

Optical Instrumentaion and Measurement (52 lectures)

19.5 %

5.4

Optical Processing (121 lectures)

19.5 %

8.5

Thermoelectric Energy Conversion (60 lectures)

19.1 %
Figure in parentheses is the no. of lectures for spring 2004.

JSAP International No.10 (July 2004)27

Conference Report

2 Internet reception, test operations of PC Projectors during presentations, etc.
The Society is now receiving submissionsof papers electronically, but starting with thisMeeting, submission of papers in hard copy
format had been abandoned; all papers werereceived electronically via the Internet. The
Society began accepting some submissions
for its Digest in electronic format from thecall for papers for the Spring 2002 Meeting,meaning that a complete shift to electronic
submissions has been achieved after only twoyears.
Furthermore, presentations were madeusing PC projectors rather than overhead
projectors, on a trial basis. These trials wereconducted at 15 of the 52 venues where PC
projection devices had been installed, and allthese presentations went very smoothly, withno major problems encountered. Based on
this experience, we look forward to making afull-scale shift to presentations using PC projectors in the future.

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JSAP International No.10 (July 2004)

Regarding the response to the four key
fields covered by comprehensive science andtechnology conferences, at the time of applications for regular lectures at this Meeting, presenters were asked to participate in avoluntary survey regarding these four fields:
Telecommunications (IT), Nanotechnology(NT), Biotechnology (BT), and the Environment (ET). The results of this survey showedthat of the 4,275 regular lectures, we foundthat 580 were in the field of IT, 1,557 in thefield of NT, 118 in BT, and 151 in ET. Basedon these results, we determined that fields related to Nanotechnology are by far the mostpopular, accounting for 36% of the total, andthat the presentations were distributed evenly
across the categories. Despite the close relationship between NT and the Society of Applied Physics, however, some have expressedthe view that “Nanotechnology lacks visibility
in the Society.” We thus feel that it is time toreexamine the handling of lectures in fields
related to nanotechnology. We look forward
to the valued cooperation and assistance of
all those involved.